The present invention pertains to a method and system for controlling the driving of a glow plug used mainly to aid the starting of diesel engines, and particularly relates to a method and system in which current fluctuations are reduced.
As a method of energizing a glow plug used to aid the starting of vehicular diesel engines, it is common to use pulse width modulation (PWM), which has advantages including little electric loss during voltage control and being able to set a flexible voltage on the basis of the effective voltage, and various drive control methods based on pulse width modulation have been proposed and put into practical use (e.g., see JP A 2009 13983).
However, in a case where drive control based on the effective voltage is applied to a glow plug, current fluctuations also occur in accompaniment with voltage fluctuations, but because glow plugs consume a lot of power, the current fluctuations accompanying the voltage fluctuations are also large, there are also cases where current fluctuations reach more than 10 amperes at peak times, and there is the problem that this imparts electric stress resulting from current fluctuations in the heater section, quickens the deterioration of the glow plug, and leads to a shortened lifespan.